Bum toe to keep Ogden from kickoff of camp

Jamison HensleyThe Baltimore Sun

The Ravens will place Jonathan Ogden on the physically-unable-to-perform list when they report to training camp Sunday, but team officials said the 10-time Pro Bowl offensive tackle should be ready to play by the regular-season opener.

Ogden hyperextended the big toe on his left foot against the Cleveland Browns on Dec. 17 and did not participate in any offseason minicamps with the team.

Coach Brian Billick said Ogden will remain on the PUP list for an "indeterminate amount of time," although the Ravens knew this would be the plan for Ogden since the end of last season.

"It's probably in our best interest to [sideline] J.O. through the first couple of weeks," Billick said. "I don't know if we'll put a specific time frame on it."

Ogden would be required to miss the first six weeks of the regular season if not activated by the end of the preseason.

But the Ravens don't anticipate that course of action with Ogden. "That's my understanding right now," Billick said. "There is a smart way to proceed for J.O. -- in the overall standpoint and with rehab on the toe -- that will probably put him on PUP for an extended period of time. But we've known that and anticipated that."

Ogden, who will turn 33 on Tuesday, did not have surgery but was told by a specialist after last season that he would need four to six months to recover from the injury.

He indicated that the toe would not heal quickly when he spoke to reporters last month.

"It's probably something I'm going to deal with probably for the whole season, really," Ogden said during the team's mandatory minicamp.

The Ravens are comfortable with this schedule, because Ogden missed three weeks of training camp last year to mourn the death of his father and still came back to have one of the best seasons of his career.

"For J.O. at this point in his career, there was a freshness about him at the end of the year due to not overdoing it in training camp," Billick said. "If we start training camp in rehab mode, that will probably serve Jonathan very, very well."